Pygmy Elephants Found Dead in Malaysia

A handout photo by Sabah Wildlife Department shows a young pygmy elephant walking near her dead mother in Gunung Rara Forest Reserve in Malaysia’s sabah state on Borneo Island.

Fourteen Borneo elephants – an endangered species with fewer than 1,500 left in the world – were found dead from mysterious circumstances in a protected forest in Sabah, Malaysia. And more elephants are feared dead, possibly from poisoned food.

Wildlife officials say that four elephant carcasses were first found in late December, with six more bodies found on Jan. 11. That’s already one-third of the 30 elephants roaming that particular forest, known as the Gunung Rara Forest Reserve. One Associated Press photograph captured an especially poignant moment in which a baby calf tapped its dead mother’s face with its trunk as if trying to awaken her.

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The head of the Sabah Wildlife Department, Laurentius Ambu, told The Wall Street Journal that he “suspects more are dead.” Wildlife experts, he says, are combing the area – in search of more dead elephants.

The cause of death has not yet been determined. Wildlife officials suspect that the elephants ate poisoned food, since no external injuries – such as from gunshots from poachers seeking tusks – were found. Chemical samples have been sent to local laboratories, with results expected within a week.

The Bornean elephant – also known as the pygmy elephant, with Dumbo-esque, oversized ears and plump bellies – is considered the world’s rarest and smallest elephant species.

Wildlife conservation groups say most of the world’s near-1, 500 Bornean elephants live in forests in Sabah, a 28,429 square-mile state in the eastern tip of Malaysia. Pressure for land there is high, particularly to make way for palm oil plantations. Two palm oil plantations and a logging company are in the vicinity of the forest where the Borneo elephants were found dead.

The forest in which the animals were found dead comes under the jurisdiction of the Sabah Wildlife Department, tasked to ensure the state’s myriad of plant and animal life is protected and preserved.

Conservationist say that while these elephants are more gentle-natured and friendly towards humans than other wild elephants, shrinking forests and development pressures have brought increased conflict between them and local people.

The World Wildlife Fund says plantations bring with them more human settlements, with some using illegal snares to catch small mammals considered being a nuisance. In the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary in Sabah, the group says, an estimated 20 percent of elephants have sustained injuries from snares. Speaking specifically on the recent deaths of these Bornean elephants, the World Wildlife Fund said all deaths have “happened in areas where forests are being converted for plantations”.

Wildlife officials, who declined to comment on whether they have suspects, are working with the police.

“We do not suspect anyone [for the deaths], said Karim Dakong, assistant director at the Sabah Wildlife Department’s enforcement unit. “This is the first time this is happening.”

Though the forest reserve is protected, wildlife officials admit it would be hard to track if unauthorized people have access the elephant’s sanctuary because the reserve is so large. Mr. Karim said wildlife officials “do not have enough staff” to monitor the entire area. Conservation groups have also pushed for more manpower and finances to be allocated to the Sabah Wildlife Department to better enable them to patrol large forest reserves.

The Borneo elephant is protected under the Wildlife Conservation Enactment in Malaysia, and anyone found guilty of hunting or killing them is liable to a fine, five years imprisonment, or both.

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